Inherent Target
by RenegadeRunner
Summary: Short story following RoTJ. Some people are never quite in the clear. All canon characters belong to Disney/LucasFilm All non-canon characters are my own.
1. Chapter 1

Leaves rustled as Leia made a sharp turn onto a dirt road leading deeper into the woods. Clouds covered the moon and a layer of fog had come to settle into the mountains, making it difficult to see, but her knowledge of Yavin IV served her well even in the dark. Her pulse throbbed in her ears, but she was careful to keep her breathing as quiet as she could as she continued down the path, dodging as much vegetation as possible. She knew her attackers wouldn't be far behind and was running out of places to lose them.

Leia's mad dash continued several hundred meters further before she was able to barely make out a stone structure just off the path. She leapt between a cluster of trees and landed delicately on the lower level of an old incinerator. Having not been used in centuries, or at least decades, the ruins were in surprisingly good condition, and covered more by graffiti than merewort. She took only a brief moment to look out over the meadow on the far side of the incinerator and catch her breath. Just as she prepared to make the jump to the top of the chimney, she heard the Patites reach the end of the path and took to the thin ledge around it instead. She would rather risk the climb than call attention to herself.

"I know she came this way," one of them hissed.

"She's here somewhere."

The smaller Patite walked to the edge of the trail where it emptied into the meadow and as he turned to speak to his partner, he caught sight of a tall structure; the incinerator. "There."

 _Damnit. They're more observant than I anticipated._ Leia thought as she straddled the smoke shaft. Moving faster now, she picked her way to the top as well as she could, carefully testing for loose stones as she went. At least wading through waist-high grass slowed the assassins a little and bought her some extra time. She hauled herself over the lip of the chimney just as the Patites made their way to the lower level of the incinerator, blasters drawn. Leia didn't want a fight, but it looked like they weren't going to give her much choice. She carefully removed a silver dagger from a sheath in her boot.

The pair quickly swept the exposed terrace, then walked to the far edge. The ruins were constructed on a hill, and there was a farther drop down to the meadow than the side they had climbed. That brief pause would prove to be their undoing. Leia leapt from her perch as soon as she saw her pursuers' attention shift. She delivered a swift kick that knocked one into the other and sent somebody's blaster over the edge. The three struggled for several moments, fists and weapons flying. A heavy blow connected with Leia's thigh, but she couldn't feel the pain through the adrenaline. Seconds seemed like minutes before Leia's knife found its mark and incapacitated both of her opponents.

She wiped the blade on her pant leg before replacing it and rolling the larger attacker onto his back to check for a pulse. She cursed when she didn't find one, then moved onto the next. She inhaled sharply; not only was this one lighter, but a female, very odd for the Patites. Finding that this assassin was merely unconscious, Leia quickly disarmed her, took what looked like a small communicator, and hopped lightly off the incinerator.

Pain ripped through her thigh as she landed and she fell to one knee. The adrenaline had worn off, and suddenly she felt every blow from her recent encounter. Her leg was wet with blood flowing from a rather large gash, and she was fairly sure that her ribs were bruised at the very least. Sacrificing what was left of her pant leg, she tied one piece of fabric above her injury as a tourniquet, and another directly over it as a bandage. With some effort, Leia rose from the ground and hastened across the meadow as best she could. By this time, the clouds had cleared and she could see the stars and planets in the skies above. She picked one to focus on until she made it to the distant treeline and passed through. She was beginning to feel quite weak, but knew there was another trail nearby that would lead her back to the old Rebel base. The tiredness would pass as long as she kept moving.


	2. Chapter 2

Leia trudged forward through the dark woods. The dirt trail wound on for several miles and seemed to grow narrower and more overgrown. She could feel her pulse in her ears and was limping despite her best efforts not to favor her injured leg.

 _You have to keep moving. You just have to keep moving. The only way to get back is to keep moving._

The General had picked up a scouting trail with relative ease, but slowed considerably since then. Fatigue and blood-loss took quite a toll, and even her exceptional mental strength was waning. As much as she wanted to adjust her tourniquets on the go, her head swam just reaching for the fabric and she came to a grudging halt. She attempted to increase the pressure on her wound with limited success, then scanned her surroundings. The area was unrecognizable in the darkness and panic began to creep in, but her mind was too fogged to care. Her mind wrestled with itself.

 _Maybe you should rest… just for a minute. It's so dark and you would feel better if you rested._

 _No! Move! You've already stopped for too long!_

 _It can't be much further. What will five minutes do?_

She was ready to give into temptation when she saw something move among the bushes ahead, or rather, she felt something move. Leia didn't dare move, though she sensed no hostile intentions. In fact, her exhaustion began to give way to a sort of calmness. The presence she felt intensified, and a small bluish dot of light appeared. Within moments, it had multiplied and she found herself gazing at a cluster of them floating gently above and along the trail. There was no surge of power and energy, but she found her legs leading her towards them slowly. They were stiff and tired, but functioning. The lights danced ahead of her, pulling her gently forward, which she did almost involuntarily. Her mind was quiet, transfixed by the essence or entities, and she lost all sense of time. Nothing else mattered.

And suddenly Leia stopped. She had broken through the treeline and found herself standing at the edge of a large clearing. The sunrise was blinding, and she was barely able to make out the shape of Base One. She heard the whine of engines and was quickly greeted by a trio of land speeders. Evidently, the group of former-Rebels currently working on the old Massassi Temple were still running surveillance. A chorus of "General!" and "Are you alright?" buzzed around her, but she didn't answer.

"Leia!" a shout rose above everyone else; Han. He pushed his way through the small cluster of people, followed closely by Chewbacca. He wrapped Leia firmly in a hug, then backed off, one had still on her shoulder.

The General looked down at her ripped and bloody clothes. Her usual artfully braided hair was a tangled mess and she tasted metal from a split lip.

"I'm… I'm fine," she lied. Then everything went black. Han caught her as she crumpled to the ground.


	3. Chapter 3

Quiet beeping and hushed voices gradually became clearer as Leia returned to consciousness. Her eyes fluttered open and she was able to make out three figures standing a few feet away, then she bolted upright.

"Oh my!" C-3PO shouted. The other two men whipped around to face the bed; Han and Luke.

"Leia! You're alright." Luke confirmed. "What happened?"

"Luke? What are…? How long have I been out?"

"Couple of hours." Han answered. He paused, then continued on, louder now, "What were you thinking going out there alone? We had half our crew out searching!"

"Not now." Luke tried to calm his friend. The smuggler was frustrated with himself for not going with Leia and would much rather project his emotions than accept them.

"Yes, now." Han countered. "Where were you?"

Leia hid her growing pain well. "I was just securing some old ranger outposts by Flat Mountain. It wasn't going to take long and I was ready to come back when those assassins showed up."

"Assassins!" Threepio repeated.

"They blasted my speeder and tried to get me with magna-bolos. I took off towards the old incinerator and hoped I could lose them. I didn't know if they wanted to catch me or kill me…" Leia trailed. "They managed to follow me though and I only barely got the upper hand."

"How'd you get away then? Where are they?" Han prompted.

Leia sighed and gently nodded toward the knife that was sitting on top of a new change of clothes on the floor. "One I knocked pretty well unconscious and the other is dead."

"Then that's where we're going. I have a few questions and I'd like to hear his answers."

"Her." Leia interjected.

"What?" Luke asked.

"Her. She. One was a female."

This information clearly was unexpected and concerning to everyone. Even Threepio was silent.

"And she had that on her. It's some kind of communicator." Leia again gestured towards the pile of clothing and gear.

Luke walked across the room and picked it up. "I don't recognize it. I mean, the base unit looks exactly like one from the New Republic, but I'm not sure what this part is over here. Some kind of modulator?" He continued inspecting it.

"Huh." Han shrugged after a moment. He turned again to leave.

"I'm coming with you." Leia declared. Her leg was still quite painful, but the medical droids had stitched her up well and treated her with a hefty dose of bacta.

"Leia, I don't think that's the best idea." Luke advised.

"And I don't think that was a question," she countered as she disconnected herself from various pieces of monitoring equipment.

Several minutes later, Leia had cleaned up as best she could, and donned a set of standard-issue fatigues from several years prior when the Great Temple housed the Rebel high command. The trio recruited two pilots, Privates Kanis and Pola, who didn't appear to be contributing much to the efforts to preserve the old base, and set off towards the incinerator.

Their journey through the woods was much faster in the speeders. Though overgrown after a period of lighter use, the dirt road was much clearer than Leia's winding trek along the old scout trail. The trail from the main route to the meadow seemed shorter in daylight as well, less foreboding.

Leia led the group onto the first level of the incinerator, "We were up here…" The bodies were missing!

The masonry they stood on was heavily graffitied, but fresh scorch marks and smudges of blood were visible enough to indicate the struggle that had taken place less than a day ago.

"Where are they then?" Han asked, feeling that this could easily turn into a much longer venture than he hoped. The two officers scanned the area.

"Sir, no life-signs in the vicinity." Pola reported.

"Confirmed." Kanis agreed, then pointed across the open space. "However, I'm picking up an abnormal heat signature about 600 meters that way."

"Abnormal how?" Han asked.

"Like someone lit a fire."

"She burned the body." Leia whispered. "She burned the body."

Han jumped to the ground below and stalked across the meadow.

Leia's leg likely wouldn't handle the impact well, so she and the others took the more gradual route down and trailed behind him. No one was in a hurry to catch up to Han when he was in such an unpleasant mood.

They arrived at the treeline within seconds of each other. Remnants of a small funeral pyre smoldered, but smelled of chemicals above anything else. The assassin clearly was in a hurry and used some sort of accelerant. Nothing could be salvaged.

"Ma'am, there's nothing here. Whoever it was is long gone. I don't think there's much we can do now." Kanis stated as she concluded her further scans of the area.

"Thank you Private." Leia dismissed the woman, then kicked a charred piece of wood. "Dammit."

"If she went through all this effort to cover her tracks, I think it's safe to say this Patite was a professional. I doubt she's even on the moon any more." Luke knew it wasn't what his sister wanted to hear.

"I know." She replied, "We're almost done at Base One anyways. There's no point in lingering, here or at the Temple."

"You're just uneasy because you don't know why the Patites would send an assassin." Luke prompted again, voicing her thoughts.

"No, I don't."

The Patites were a rather isolated group, but peaceful. They tended to stay away from galactic politics and remained an independent system throughout the regime changes of the last several years, having not formally joined the Empire or the New Republic, or even the Separatists in the decades before. Perhaps it was something to discuss with her friends in the Senate, those that were left anyway.

The silence was interrupted by a crackle of static on Leia's communicator.

"General. We're through with our inventory and maintenance here. Everything will be ready to secure when you get back."

"Thank you. Send a message to Admiral Ackbar and the rest of the fleet. We'll rendezvous with them near Mandalore and anyone who's due for leave can continue with them to dock in the Core region. The rest of us will secure the base at Tierfon."

"Yes General. I'll send the Resolute Squadron off now."

"We won't be much longer." Leia signed off.


End file.
